The National Talks with Atul Gawande: Embracing the Sentimental

It’s fitting that the most captivating exchange during The National’s conversation with New Yorker staff writer Atul Gawande would be in a shared moment with the audience, the band, and Gawande. Following an honest discussion of the band’s earlier rejections throughout the nineties and about their usually tense process of filtering songs (an inner-band dynamic they jokingly compared to that of the UN), the conversation turned to insights into the ultimately unifying aim of their music: emotionality. In an audience Q. & A., vocalist Matt Berninger responded to a fan’s appreciation:

We sort of embraced the idea that songs can be sentimental—sappy is something that we were never afraid to walk up against—and potentially even overstep into something melodramatic. Some of my favorite songs are melodramatic. You can do that kind of stuff with song. Sometimes I think in real life we don’t allow ourselves to be that raw and vulnerable. I think we’ve, from the beginning, never had any problems or were never embarrassed by the emotional tearjerkers.